No, Utilizing Sharpies on Election Ballots Would not Invalidate Your Vote

Claims that ballots for the U.S. presidential election will probably be invalid if a voter makes use of a Sharpie marker circulated on-line in October 2024. 

One X consumer wrote: “Don’t use a sharpie to mark your poll even when the polling place makes you. Take your individual pen. Sharpie ballots aren’t counted!!”

One other consumer echoed this declare, posting: “By no means use a Sharpie to mark your poll. It is going to invalidate your vote. If they offer you a marker, refuse it.”

By no means use a Sharpie to mark your poll. It is going to invalidate your vote. If they offer you a marker, refuse it. #PassItOn

— Anne Veritas (@anneveritas) October 13, 2024

Related claims have circulated prior to now. In November 2020, a false rumor that Arizona polling locations gave certain voters Sharpie markers as a way to invalidate their votes for candidate Donald Trump made nationwide headlines.

Likewise, in November 2022, folks falsely said Sharpies were not cleared for poll use within the state of Illinois. 

The newest claims, like these in earlier years, are false.

In 2020, The Associated Press fact-checked the claims relating to Sharpies in Arizona. AP mentioned the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors “printed a letter to voters expressing concern about misinformation” relating to Sharpies. The information company reported that officers examined a “extensive number of pens with their vote-tabulation tools” and that the board mentioned the pens “are beneficial by the producer as a result of they supply the fastest-drying ink.”

The claims have been so widespread that Arizona’s Clear Elections Fee, a nonpartisan committee that capabilities because the administrator of the Residents Clear Elections Act that voters handed in 1998, created a web page on their website debunking the rumor. In response to the location: 

Any common poll forged on the polling place will probably be counted. Sharpies are literally the beneficial pen for filling out a poll on the polling place in Maricopa County. That is completely different from earlier years since Maricopa County bought new election tools. Sharpies work greatest because the ink dries the quickest, which is healthier for the tabulation machine to learn when the voter locations their voted poll into the tabulator on the polls. Additionally, if there’s any bleed by means of, it could not impression different races as a result of poll design. The county particularly bought the pens equipped by ballot staff, which have been issued to ALL voters.

As well as, Maricopa County Elections posted an explainer video on its YouTube account.

Throughout the midterm elections in 2022, the Illinois State Board of Elections (SBE) debunked related claims in a post on its verified X account. 

If you happen to’re given a felt-tip pen immediately whereas voting, do not be involved. Many voting programs favor them as a poll marking gadget. #ElectionDay #Election2022 pic.twitter.com/JKcTrgcqPu

— Illinois SBE (@illinoissbe) November 8, 2022

Different official accounts have addressed related rumors prior to now, together with the Facebook page for Michigan’s Secretary of State in 2020.

Additional, California’s Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters web site mentioned: “The voting system works effectively with a Sharpie sort of marker and is the beneficial sort of poll marking pen it is best to use to mark your poll because the ink dries quick and is well detected by the poll tabulator.” 

Many different counties all through the US have posted data relating to using Sharpies on their web sites on account of the continuing unfold of this rumor, together with Montgomery County in Pennsylvania and San Bernardino County in California. 

Snopes has fact-checked many allegations of voter fraud, together with supposed duplicate ballots in Madison, Wisconsin, voting programs allegedly deleting millions of votes for Trump, and 10 million mail-in ballots allegedly being “lost” in California’s 2022 midterm elections. 

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